Pliskova another Czech failure

I'm so disappointed - for two days in a row Czech tennis has been rocked and my prediction of a Czech final in the women's draw has been totally shattered.

Day 3 saw Petra Kvitova's dreams of a third Wimbledon disappear and Day 4 Karolina Pliskova once more failed to last beyond the second round.

Pliskova won the first set against Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova, ranked 87 in the world, but her game fell apart after that.

Rybarikova hit 33 winners for the match and restricted her unforced errors.  At the net she was far more successful, winning 25 points from 36 ventures, as opposed to Pliskova with a dreadful 13 from 32.

Joining Pliskova on the scrapheap was her compatriot Lucie Safarova (32) defeated by American Shelby Rogers in three sets.

Other women's seeds to lose were Daria. Kasatkina (29), promising Estonian Anett Kontaveit doing the damage, and Kristina Mladenovic (12), American Alison Riske too strong on the day.

America has 5 women left in the final 32 including Venus Williams, the only player still standing to have won this title before (5 times).

It could have been 6 had Christina McHale converted one of her match points against Aga Radwanska.  

Radwanska came from behind to register one of her best wins for the year 5-7 7-6 (7) 6-3.

The previous 2 beaten Wimbledon finalists were impressive in reaching the third round, Kerber and Muguruza knocking over Belgians Flipkens and Wickmayer respectively.

Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer were at the top of their games in dismissing Adam Pavlasek and Dusan Lajovic in about an hour and half each.

Not as much success for the Americans in the men's draw with seeds Jack Sock (17) and John Isner (23) bowing out to Austrian Sebastian Ostner, ranked 217 and veteran Dudi Sela respectively.

The expected mouth watering third round clash between Djokovic and del Potro will not occur thanks to Latvian Ernests Gulbis.  The once top ten player, despite making the fourth round of Roland Garros last year, is currently ranked 589, yet pulled off a massive upset, serving wonderfully and countering the powerful forehand of the Argentine, winning in four sets.

Other top seeds to do well apart from Roger and Novak include Alexander Zverev (10), Gael Monfils (15), Grigor Dimitrov (13), all straight sets winners.